Rodrigo Y Gabriela

The pair was determined to get their music to anyone willing to listen. Restaurants, bars, street gigs, wedding receptions, art galleries—you name it, they played it. A chance encounter with singer/songwriter Damien Rice resulted in an invitation to open for him on tour. Emancipation from random gig-o-rama soon followed. Sanchez’s lightning-fast single-line runs combined with Quintero’s rhythmic techniques—which include playing boisterous percussion parts on her guitar’s body—provided an intense, visceral experience that Rice’s rock crowds could relate to. A large fan base emerged across Europe. Their adopted homeland of Ireland went particularly crazy for them. In fact, their new, self-titled album [ATO] hit number one in that country’s album charts—a first for an instrumental record there.

Rodrigo y Gabriela was produced by John Leckie, who is renowned for his work with alternative rock acts such as Radiohead, Muse, and Stone Roses. The duo chose him because they knew he could capture the fiery energy of their live performances while avoiding even a hint of nuevo flamenco’s new age leanings. The disc’s nine dynamic and unabashedly brash tracks take listeners on a breathless, non-stop rollercoaster ride through the duo’s varied influences. It also features links to the pair’s metal roots, with acoustic reinventions of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” and Metallica’s “Orion.”

Describe the creative process behind the new album.

Quintero: We often just sit together in a room, and jam independently. If Rodrigo likes what he hears me playing, he might start adding a melody to it. From there, I’ll start creating new rhythms and harmonies, and the next thing you know, hours will have passed. We just fall into a zone where we get really focused. Sometimes, this also happens at soundcheck, or at the hotel before the gig. We try to fit in writing whenever we can—even if the circumstances are crazy. We prefer ideas that are a lot of fun, diverse, and dynamic. It takes us anywhere from a few weeks to a couple of months to come up with something. During that time, we are constantly changing the structure. We find that playing pieces live also really helps us understand what works—and what doesn’t—about a piece. So, in a way, live performance is part of the composition process.

What tools do you use when you write?

Sanchez: We aren’t able to transcribe what we do, because we don’t know how to read or write music. We typically just record riffs and ideas onto our Mac laptop using the built-in condenser mic. We’ll even record ideas into our mobile phone using memo-recording mode. The sound quality may be terrible, but it ensures we remember any ideas that might otherwise disappear. When we get serious about writing, we use Pro Tools 6.7.

How does composing for two acoustic guitars differ from writing for your previous metal band?

Quintero: In the metal band, we were much younger, and we would fight for every little element in a piece. We’re much more mature now. If I come up with something, Rodrigo doesn’t judge it. We just run with it, and try to finish the thing. If we finish it and hate it, it doesn’t matter. We don’t have to record it. It’s not uncommon for us to spend weeks or months on a song, and then throw it away because it’s not working. However, we feel that you never waste your time when you’re writing or playing music. You always learn something new. Another difference with the metal band is that we tried to make everything as complicated as possible. Nowadays, we’re focused on writing the most natural and organic music possible. We’re not out to please anyone but ourselves.

Tell me how you went about adapting Metallica’s “Orion”?

Sanchez: I think to effectively adapt a song like that, you have to know the song perfectly. You can completely understand the structure, but that’s only one part. If you want to create a new version that comes from the heart, you need to really love the song, and align yourself with the vibe of the original. I listened to

Master of Puppets—the album that track is from—every day for years, and I still listen to it a lot. It’s my favorite album in the whole metal genre, and Metallica is the reason I was inspired to play guitar in the first place. So, I wanted to be very faithful to the original, and to arrange it simply for two guitars, while also trying to somehow reproduce all of the band elements—including the drum parts.

Quintero: An example of that is the way I use my right hand to emulate the drum fills, rhythms, and beats with heavy strumming, and by playing percussion on the body of the guitar. Muting the bass string with my right hand is another way I create percussive effects for the piece.

What guitars did you use on the album?

Sanchez: We primarily used two custom-made guitars by Frank Tate, a luthier in Dublin. The fretboards are narrower and thinner than many acoustic guitars—which made the transition from electric guitar easier for us. We love these guitars because they sound rocky and heavy—not clean or classical. Frank also reinforced the guitars by building little wooden structures inside the instruments. It enables us to do all of our heavy percussion things without breaking the guitars. The guitars use Alaskan spruce for the tops and sides, Indian rosewood for the backs, and Honduras mahogany for the fretboards. Both are equipped with Fishman Premium Stereo Blender pickups. We use normal-tension D’Addario nylon strings—which are great because they’re very strong and they never break onstage.

Take us behind the scenes of the recording sessions.

Quintero: We made the album at Riverside Studios in Bath, England, using Pro Tools HD. We were there 16 days in a row, playing together in one room. The aim was to capture a really live sound, with both of us interacting in real time, and just going for it. John Leckie was in charge of mic placement—and he had them all over the place—and kept changing their locations between takes and songs.

Sanchez: I think his decision to experiment with mic placement came out of the fact that we didn’t want to have a regular guitar sound like you would find on a flamenco or classical album. We wanted the album to sound edgy, bright, live, rich, and somewhat electric—even though we’re playing acoustic guitars. To achieve that, he would place two or three mics on each guitar—some that were far away, and some that were hung from booms. He used several types of mics, including Neumanns U89s and AKG C-414s. Apart from a bit of reverb, we didn’t allow John to put any effects on the guitar. Even when we play live, we don’t use anything—just a little reverb from whatever deck the sound engineer is using.

You dislike being pigeonholed as flamenco guitarists, but the influence is undeniably there. What attracted you to that form, given your metal background?

Sanchez: We listen to a lot of different kinds of music, but we really love flamenco. It’s funny, when we were living in Mexico, we never thought we would play flamenco rhythms, because all we wanted to do was play thrash metal. The Latin stuff was uninteresting to us. We were very ignorant then. When we left Mexico, all of the influences from our childhood—such as the flamenco vibe—came into play naturally. It’s important to note that I don’t really play that similarly to a flamenco player. Unlike flamenco musicians, we use plectrums, because our sound comes from all kinds of other influences, too—including metal and jazz.

Quintero: The truth is I don’t really know how flamenco musicians do things. I often try to copy their riffs, and I end up making different rhythms in the process. When I see a flamenco guitarist play, I think “Oh my God, that’s not how I do it!” However, I think it’s good that we’re not tied to any specific techniques, because that provides a certain type of freedom. This all relates to the fact that we always listened to lots of different kinds of music. My mom has a really amazing music collection that includes jazz, salsa, rock, classical, tango, and flamenco. As a result, I used to try to emulate flamenco rhythms on electric guitar while I was in the metal band. We tried to adapt jazz techniques, too. It was those interests that led us to quit the metal band. It became a lot more interesting to try and play things such as Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five” on two acoustic guitars. Our goal became simply to live for music with no expectations of becoming famous, and to play acoustic guitar pieces that draw from a variety of genres purely for our own enjoyment.